Falcon 1 fails 31 kilometers over Kwajalein

Privately Developed
Liquid Fueled Rocket and Payload
presumed lost

SpaceX had surprized everyone paying attention, Saturday, announcing barely a day after a successfull test of it's medium-lift Falcon 9 configuration, a pending test launch to orbit of Falcon 1, Flight 3 mission for Saturday, at 23:00 (UTC), with a five hour window for three mini-satellites.

"Webcast" (more SSV, than video) began approximately 30 minutes before a first launch, and subsequently even up to an aborted launch attempt, halting the countdown just moments prior to full ignition.

Ultimately, SpaceX did launch, but suffered an "anomally" roughly 31 kilometers over the western Pacific equatorial launching facility at Kwajalein.

The rocket and payload are presumed destroyed, though details are sketchy.

SpaceX's Falcon 1 launch site, at the Kwajalein Atoll, lies 2500 miles southwest of Hawaii, on Omelek, part of the Reagan Test Site (RTS) of U. S. Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA).

"Designed from the ground up" by SpaceX at its headquarters in Hawthorne, California, Falcon 1 was a two-stage, liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene powered vehicle.

The first stage was powered by a single SpaceX "Merlin 1C Regenerative engine," flying for the first time on this Flight 3 mission.

"A hold before liftoff”system enhances reliability by permitting all systems to be verified as functioning nominally before launch is initiated," SpaceX's surprise launch attempt announcement reported, early Saturday.

"The Falcon 1 second stage is powered by a single SpaceX Kestrel engine."

Falcon 1 was carrying a payload stack of three separating satellites that were to orbit at an inclination of 9 degrees.

Trailblazer was developed by SpaceDev of Poway, California, for the "Jumpstart Program" of DOD's Operationally Responsive Space Office as test platform to validate hardware, software and processes of an accelerated microsatellite launch. Trailblazer was to be deployed from the Falcon 1's second stage shortly after the shut-down, 10 minutes into flight.

Deploying four to eight minutes later were to be two NASA small satellites: PRESat, a micro lab from NASA Ames, and then NanoSail-D, which was to unfurl an ultra-thin solar sail developed at NASA Marshall, in collaboration with Ames.

The three separating satellites were to ride onboard the Secondary Payload Adaptor and Separation System, (SPASS) developed by ATSB, a company owned by the Government of Malaysia. The SPASS was engineered by Space Access Technologies of Ashburn, Virginia.